it comes down to running sound horses. any horse that doesn't start for months or retires and comes back. should be questioned. the greed factor is a problem. they made discreet cat 7/5, he has not won since 8/2006. do you think hes the same horse? well they ran him. then the ones that are good and healthy ,well most of them will be retired. street sense,hard spun,curlin will say bye ,bye. gw was impotent so back to racing he went. these rich folks used to race for pride. not the bottom line. who pays the price ?horses like GW and the fans thats who!

How do you know I'm guessing...

I cant wait to see the ads in the Bloodhorse

HORSE GOES TO STUD>>>CHAMPION IN SCURLOGUES BOOK

George earned his retirement. Having made the decision last year that his racing career was over, the Coolmore group should be ashamed of themselves for bringing him back to the races, solely because they concluded that he could not be the "profit center" for them that they envisioned. Of course, shame is in short supply with this outfit; after all, they are the prime American backers of Patrick Biancone - and why do I suspect that on November 1, 2008, he'll be training for them again.

Naturally they blame everything except the EUROPEAN connections for the breakdown. The fact that an overmatched, former champion whose form had deteoriated and who was being ridden and whipped down the backstretch of the race to keep up is ignored.

This is supposedly one of those non drug, sound european horses that brokedown, not our drug infested, weak American horses.

First of all, the 'idiotic comments' aren't emanating from the article...

Jim Bolger has every right to make those comments and they're being echoed by many other important European conditioners and media members. And they're absolutely timely, germane and important fodder for discussion here.

The article simply reflects how many people deal with many things these days. Point the finger towards someone or something. It was a tragedy. It's part of the sport we love. I wish it would never happen, but it does.

i bet a year ago when they retired gw, you screamed greed. you probably wanted him to run at four, i know i did. so now greed brought him back?
you know, citation missed his entire four year old season. came back like gangbusters at five. that's just one example.
there are other horses who have run well past the age of four, or have been retired and then brought back to racing for one reason or another.

had gw not been sub-fertile, he'd not have come back. but we're talking about a four year old in his prime, not a much older horse. he missed a few months, probably not much more of a layoff then what flower alley had between his bc and his first race the next season. he was multiple group one placed this year, not exactly scraping the bottom of the barrel.
should he have run the race, in hindsight we'd all say no. but there were no indications leading up to the race that he shouldn't go. no one would have done as they had, had they known then what we all know now. but no one had that benefit.

We also have the right to tell him that if the Euros suddenly dont like our money then they dont have to come. If our racing is so bad then stay home. They certainly have no problem sending their bleeders over here. If they dont like the track conditions than they should stay home or scratch.

i suppose bolger thinks poly would have made all the difference for george, and the 'turf tracks without the drugs' comment must be his reasoning for the euros going 0- this year.

typical bs and I hate to tell him that Churchill and Belmont which are the 2 likely choices for the next BC's are still dirt.

i wonder how things will go next year on the all weather.....will more euros come do you suppose?
call me crazy, but i'd imagine they'll still be calling the vets for the evil drugs upon landing....

I dont know if they will come because they dont like
1. Weather - too hot
2. Cali - too far
3. Turns too tight
4. Turf too hard (though this year it was too soft! go figure euros complaining about soft turf)
5. Money exchange is bad
6. Too many drugs
7. wrong kind of synthetic track
8. no free plane rides

i should be there though :)

if its marketed properly to Aussie and Asian horses, next years BC could be the best yet..

You are honorary Yankee...you dont really count!

I think we will send a number of horses to Santa Anita. Some will be put off because of the heat and the distance, but overall we have had quite a good record there in recent years, i believe.

Extremes of turf conditions is always a problem. The only horses that didn't want a soft surface this year was Dylan Thomas. Unlike most european turf horses, the turf cannot be firm enough for him. As Aidan commented, he needs it like "concrete".

Exchange rate will hopefully be better than it is right now. Why is the dollar so weak at the moment???? We are getting a dollar for around 30 pence right now. I have never seen it so weak for so many months.

Our racing country is far too kind by giving free transport for overseas horses to our big meets, having said that they do it in Dubai, too.

One option i have heard for the Breeders Cup "world championships" is to split it into two. Have the turf races in europe or even asia, and the dirt races in America. I think then it really could be called a "world championship" event.

Although the surface doesn't seem to have any direct link with the George Washington injury, vets have said that it isn't impossible that it did cause some ill-effects. I didn't realise that when a dirt track gets so sloppy, the horses are basically running on the hard base, which could have led to the fracture becoming an open fracture with the added concussion going through the leg.

If someone takes a great-performing horse off the track at three and puts him into the shed, they are greedy bastards.

If they take the non-useful horse out of the shed and put the good race horse back on the track to continue to race, they are greedy bastards.

If a horse isn't a top fav for a race he shouldn't be in there.

Fields are too short because everyone is afraid of being beat and pulls their horse. We deserve better - put those longer shots back in there.

If a horse breaks down, it's the connection's fault - they knew the horse was at risk.

Or it's the fault of the dirt. Or the poly. Or the turf. Or the breeding. Or drug abuse.

I forgot this one: if you are one of the top ten horses in the country in your division, you're still nothing but crap if your Beyer is 5 points less than those better, and you don't deserve to race with them!

This sport is so confusing.

will all that fit in a 'nutshell'?

It looks to be just a slap at US racing.

as far as the drugs issue, okay yes thats a valid one that we have to deal with, and maybe we aren't the example for the world. but the event that prompted his comment was the breakdown of a European horse, so I don't get the tie in to drugs.

and as far as the surface goes, advocating polytrack for all future BC's, can he actually be making the leap that using polytrack for the BC will guarantee no breakdowns will occurr? is he implying that there are no breakdowns over there on polytrack? and is polytrack safer than turf? if so why don't they run all the big european races on poly for safety? if its like he says and polytrack "separates the men from the boys" then why don't they lead the way?

as most people know on here I think polytrack might be safer in the long run, but a breakdown can occur anytime on any surface.

why should we take these comments seriously? I'm guessing he would have had nothing to say had George pulled off an upset and won the thing.

What would we talk about if we all thought alike? ;)

George was beautiful - loved his face.

well, on this issue you and i would be talking about those who didn't agree with us...

and he was a beauty.

as usual, youre spot on.. i suppose one problem with the Japanese is that if they do travel, they have to travel for either big purses (ie Dubai) or huge prestige (ie Europe). They see Europe and in particular, the Arc as the holy grail of racing and subsidise horses trying to achieve that goal. The Breeders Cup is not held in the same regard. Do the Breeders Cup even have a PR guy like Ascot's Nick Smith who goes around the world trying to get connections to race??

Byk

Jay Hoveday wrote an interesting editorial piece in DRF tonight ("Horses Put Needlessly At Risk"). He kind of goes here and there within the piece (I think he is just upset, as nearly all are, at the loss of a great horse while racing).

But he does say the event should be delayed if a track is in the same condition in the future (while also noting the BC horses that have broken down while on different surfaces, at different venues, at different tracks).

What constitutes a "safe enough" track? Should dirt racing be cancelled if it rains significantly?

we've lost more horses on better days condition-wise.
knee jerk reactions imo.

I blame the greed of the connections for this one. The horse had proven all he needed to do on grass; despite the fact he was never in contention in last year's Classic (while in much better form) they expected him to make the quantum leap to not only handle dirt, but slop........against the top dirt runners in the world. I agree with Vic Stauffer's comment before the race: "George Washington might be the worst 10-1 shot I've ever seen". It was an ignorant decision to race the horse on dirt and now they must live with their decision.

requiem...
 

when i wrote this post i did'nt think it would evolve to this. i really was'nt emotional when i posted it but i did have three vodkas in me.

the frustration of seeing another great horse go down...and in those conditions made me angry. i havent changed my opinion on this but i respect all of the different views.

i love this sport and i don't want it to be tarnished by an event i still feel did'nt have to happen on racings biggest day.

for me, it's about keeping horses alive during and after there careers.

ie: john henry

my sentiments exactly
 

...

He was in the race for one reason: not because it was the best spot but because if by some miracle and he won or ran 2nd or even 3rd, he would've enhanced his stud value.

Bolger's comments are laughable. I would equate it to Bobby Frankel or Todd Pletcher saying the Epsom Derby is meaningless because it often isn't run on firm turf.

Jim,

It is a slap at US racing.. and one well-meant. And deserved. We're an embarassment on the International front in regards to our allowing tons of pharmaceutical enhancements in our horses, not to mention hidden foal surgeries and steroids in our sales yearlings/2yo's, etc.. It's a system totally skewed to greed that's hastened the deterioration of the quality of the racing and is undermining of the integrity of the breed.

And they do lead the way and don't need to run their races on polytrack... They're running on turf except at the all-weather/all-season locales. The comments should be taken seriously because they reflect the contempt that's out there for what is an increasingly inferior product on track in this country. That's fueled by increasingly fragile horses that are babied by the training community due to the need of the owners to feed right back into the perverted financial machine of the breeding side. It's a vicious circle.